Les Faluns du Miocène Moyen de Bretagne [The Faluns of the Middle Miocene of Brittany]

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Language: French with bilingual summary in English and French

The "Faluns Sea" that covered western France during the Middle Miocene extended to the North by a wide marine strait open on the Palaeo-Channel and flooding a part of Brittany (Ille-et-Vilaine and Côtes-d’Armor areas). The precise dating of the deposits can rarely distinguish Langhian and Serravalian strata. The outcrops are few and small, and are generally abandoned and vegetated since several decades. In the history of science, they have contributed to the birth of Miocene stratigraphy and palaeontology. They reflect one of the last marine transgressions that have flooded and eroded the Armorican Massif. The faluns of Brittany have also contributed to the regional economy, especially with lime production. The invertebrate fauna from the breton Faluns is difficult to inventory, except for echinoderms and bryozoans, because molluscs are generally known by internal and external moulds only. However, marine vertebrate remains are remarkable by their diversity and good preservation, when terrestrial species are particularly uncommon, compared to their biodiversity in the contemporaneous strata from Anjou and Touraine. The richness of universitary and private collections for the first time allows a quantitative and statistical study of the vertebrate assemblage from the Faluns of Brittany. The palaeontological heritage of these Faluns cannot be restricted only to the Middle Miocene deposits, because Late Miocene Faluns, named "Redonian", exist in Western France, but are less known and studied.

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